Lehigh University student lawsuit can be justified but for columnist's personal reasons

Is it too late to take everything back? Has the statute of limitations for lawsuits run out for offenses occurring as early as 1944?

In spite of the uncharitable things I have said about Allentown contingency-fee lawyer Rick Orloski over the years, I now see he may be my only way to get rich quick because of all the wrongs I have suffered in my education.

I was inspired by his lawsuit against Lehigh University and two faculty members who, it was alleged, gave his client, former Lehigh student Megan Thode, a C-plus instead of the grade she wanted. The lawsuit sought $1.3 million for her.

Sadly, Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano ruled Thursday in Lehigh's favor. He rejected Orloski's claim that Thode was given a C+, one grade below what she needed to advance in her quest for a special clinical master's degree, because she complained about being mistreated at Lehigh and a teacher, Amanda Carr, was biased against her for advocating gay and lesbian rights.

The lack of that degree, it was alleged, prevented Thode from achieving, as a story on Thursday put it, her "dream of becoming a licensed professional counselor."

When I read what opposing lawyers had presented in the case prior to trial, I was stopped in my tracks by one of the documents offered as evidence by Orloski.

It is a 2009 email letter from Carr to fellow faculty member Nicholas Ladany, who has since left the university but was a co-defendant in the lawsuit. The letter expresses concerns over an "outburst in the class" made by Thode.

"The most pressing concern at this time from my perspective is Megan's emotional well-being," the letter says. "I believe there are long-standing mental health issues negatively impacting her performance." It suggests that Thode "take an incomplete" in the course and "seek professional counseling services" before resuming it.

Can you imagine what would happen if the university ignored such concerns while letting a student get a degree that facilitates a position as a licensed professional counselor? What if people thus counseled were harmed in some way? Contingency-fee lawyers could jam court dockets with lawsuits claiming that Lehigh was negligent in the way it dished out degrees.

All the same, I was counting on the lawsuit to be successful for personal reasons, and I was dismayed over the ruling by Giordano, whom I have repeatedly praised in the past. As I indicated above, I have not been as kind to Orloski.

Among other things, I've bashed him over his opposition to tort reform, aimed at controlling frivolous lawsuits and unscrupulous lawyers. Once, when I accused Orloski of being "one of the Lehigh Valley's top dynamos for tort litigation," he took it as a compliment and used it in a commercial to drum up business for himself.

I hereby take it all back!

I could use $1.3 million (or maybe a little less after a small contingency fee kicks in) and I want to get back at all the people who did me dirt, educationally speaking.

It started in 1944, when I showed up for kindergarten, and a week later they kicked me out. They said that because I already could read, I should be in first grade. That was traumatic because I was the littlest kid in class and I always was getting bullied. (I got big in high school, but by that time the main bully was in another school and I never got the satisfaction of revenge.)

Actually, the reading thing was my mother's fault, but she is now beyond the reach of even Orloski, so we need to go after the school system for the damage done to me by skipping a grade.

One day in high school, through no fault of my own, there was a small riot. Well, that is, it was mostly not my fault.

"I know it was you!" Mr. Peck yelled at me when I was called to the principal's office. "You're behind everything [bad] that happens in this school. You're the gang leader." My reputation was in tatters and I hope Orloski can find somebody (Mr. Peck also is no longer with us) at that school to fork over part of my $1.3 million.

After Mr. Peck handed me my high school diploma (you should have seen the look on his face), I went in the military and my education continued at the Air Force's nuclear weapons school in Denver.

That expertise is not very useful unless you want to blow up a city. The Air Force should have taught me something more practical, such as how to bribe politicians so they help make me rich. When Orloski goes after the Air Force, I anticipate stacks of money that rise into the wild blue yonder.

The Air force also subsidized my college education (English, political science, Japanese, etc.) at community colleges in California and at the University of Maryland's overseas campus, but failed to go far enough to get me a degree. (Also, I think it's fair to say a grade of C was not exactly a rarity.)

Then, just as I was starting to read a little Japanese, they transferred me to Oklahoma. Do you know how many opportunities there are to make progress in Japanese in Oklahoma? Most of my Japanese went sayonara and I hope Orloski sues both the Air Force and that whole state.

Anyway, with those and many other hurtful educational experiences in my background, I am confident I'll be counting up that $1.3 million in no time at all.